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NASCAR changes rules, again
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The Monday morning after The Winston races at Charlotte, NASCAR
officials announced that they would add an additional one-quarter
(1/4") of an inch to the height of the rear spoiler of the Ford
Thunderbird in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series for the May 25 Coca-Cola
600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The one-quarter addition brings the
height of the spoiler to 5.75 inches.

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Wood Family Update
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On their way home from Charlotte last Saturday night, the Wood family
van was struck head-onby a vehicle that crossed over the median on
I-85. Leonard Wood sustained a cracked sternum and a bruised back and
was released Sunday morning. Betty Mae Wood, wife of Leonard, died at
the scene. Kelly Witt, Leonard's son-in-law, was driving the van and
suffered minor injuries. Beth Witt, Leonard's daughter, was taken to
Baptist Memorial Hospital in Winston Salem, N.C. Carlin Witt,
Leonard's four year old granddaughter, was to Baptist Memorial and is
in critical condition recovering from abdominal surgery related to the
injury she sustained from the accident. Gracen Witt, Leonard's
18-month old granddaughter, was also in the vehicle but uninjured.

The Wood Family would like to thank everyone for their thoughts and
prayers. Funeral arrangements are pending and will be announced as
soon as they are finalized. If desired, the family has asked that in
lieu of flowers, donations be made in the name of Betty Mae Wood to the:
Stuart Presbyterian Church
P.O. Box 944
Stuart, VA 24171

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Pressley ousted from #29 Cartoon Network car
-------------------------------------------
After the Winston Open race last weekend at Charlotte, Gary Bechtel
once again gave walking papers to the driver of the #29 Cartoon
Network car. Current driver Robert Pressley has failed to qualify for
three of ten races so far this year, and he had three DNFs for the
races he qualified for. Jeff Green, who spent some time in the #29
seat last year filling in for Steve Grissom, has been chosen as the
new driver beginning with this weekend's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte
Motor Speedway.

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Talladega Rain Delay Alters Wedding
-------------------------------------------
When rain forced NASCAR to reschedule the Winston 500 at Talladega for
Saturday, May 10th, the result affected more than just NASCAR drivers
and fans. Wendy Mullinax was supposed to marry Felix Burns that same
day in a church directly across the street from the track. Faced with
the traffic jam from an additional 100,000-plus fans, Wendy quickly
sought help from the track and moved the wedding up to Friday evening
before the race. Even after her ordeal, she was quoted as saying that
she is still a race fan.

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NASCAR Racing Room Closed
-------------------------------------------
The chat room at NASCAR.com, which was called the Racing Room, has been
closed down permanently. The NASCAR homepage does not give a specific
reason for closing the site, but they do apologize for the change.
The most likely reason for closing the room is the bandwidth is
consumed on the server as well as the manpower to police it.

An alternative chat room has been created on the server for the Nascar
Pick12 Contest: http://www.cs.runet.edu/~pac/pick12.html

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Penske takes control of the Rock
-------------------------------------------
Penske Motorsports Inc (PMI), has exercised its option to take a
controlling interest of the North Carolina Motorsport Speedway (NCMS),
also known as The Rock. Mrs. Carrie DeWitt, chairman of the board of
North Carolina Motor Speedway, chose a merger option whereby she would
receive shares of PMI stock in exchange for her shares of stock at The
Rock. The merger must yet be approved by the NCMS Board of Directors.

Penske Motorsports, Inc. owns or operates the following speedways in
addition to its recent addition of the Rock: Michigan Speedway,
Nazareth Speedway, and the new California Speedway.

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MCI Joins Tri Star Team
-------------------------------------------
MCI Communications Corporation has joined the Tri Star Motorsports #19
Child Support Recovery International team as a sponsor. Driver Gary
Bradberry will sport the new sponsor logo starting at the Coca Cola
600 in Charlotte.

MCI is the "Official Telecommunciations Company of NASCAR," the
"Official Internet Service Provider of NASCAR," and the "Official
Presenter of NASCAR's Timing and Scoring System" for all 12 divisions
of NASCAR.

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Team CAT Website
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Rookie of the Year contender David Green drives the #96 Caterpillar
Chevy and will have a new sticker on the car for the Coca Cola 600
race at Charlotte. The sticker will simply be the URL of the new
Caterpillar Racing web site, http://www.CAT.com/racing. The site
features stories, news, information, interviews, multimedia, and
merchandise....check it out. Tell 'em I sent ya...

Please contact me if you wish to repost or redistribute this notebook,
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Disclaimer: The information contained herein was compiled from a
variety of sources, including the rumor mill and the grapevine, so its
accuracy cannot be completely guaranteed. Use of copyrights or
trademarks are for descriptive fair-use purposes only. The opinions
expressed are my own, and not my employer's.